Well it’s taken a week but I feel as if I’m finally settled in here. I’ve bought groceries twice now, I’ve put a few posters on my wall, and I’ve even gone camping in the forest already! Despite how “at home” I may feel, this place is quite opposite from Southern California. Tall palm trees have been replaced by thick pines, filling up my car has become somewhat of a less bourgeois valet service, and the beautiful variety of skin colors so representative of the SoCal community have been replaced by white, white, and more white. Ahhh, ‘merica. But what the Oregonians lack in diversity they make up for with genuine kindness. We had the day off on Wednesday so I took the time to check out the Farmer’s Market in downtown Coos Bay. I’ll tell you that was the best first impression I have gotten from any town in my 22 years of life.

Coos Bay Farmer’s Market

Perusing the local goods was enjoyable, not because of the food and new sights but because of everyone’s patience and kindness. Instead of just telling me about their product, vendors would ask where I was from and ask how I was liking Oregon, where I would reply with “Dude I’ve been here for a day, give it a rest” (of course I didn’t say that but that would be pretty wild if I did huh?). Well towards the end of the market my attention shifted towards an old-timey tea stand painted white and aquamarine with a tea-lady whose dress matched her stand. I was going to purchase a refreshing iced tea but decided against it last minute because I had already spent more than I probably should’ve. Instead of getting annoyed that I had backed out of a purchase so late in the game, Tea Lady gave me a free iced tea! What a gal! Happily zipping my raspberry-lemon tea, I checked out the nearby skate shop/thrift store called TimeBomb. I had briefly checked it out the day before with Catie so after another brief run through their goods I decided to move on, but just before I walked out I noticed there was a staircase leading to who-knows-where. So, naturally I went upstairs to see what was good, and man, I am glad I did  because I ended up walking into an iPhone repair shop (my iPhone’s camera has been broken for months). Well, after a few minutes of jibber-jabber, Good Guy Terry fixed up my iPhone’s camera in 10 minutes, charging me a grand total of $20, which was $50 cheaper than if I would’ve gone to Apple. After the deal was all done, he even threw in a free charger. What a guy!

Tea Lady’s reflection (I should really get her name next time)

After that I continued to walk around some more till I ended up in this wine shop which oddly smelt like my old trumpet teacher’s practice room. Almost immediately, the woman who owned the shop walked up and greeted me. Tamara was a portly woman, probably in her early 50s, with long brown hair and a subtle but noticeable accent that I couldn’t quite identify. I told her I wasn’t looking for anything to buy but was new in town and just was checking out what the town was about. She saw me looking at the map of the Bay Area (nope, not SF, Coos Bay County is the Bay Area of Oregon) and shuffled over to help point out a few things. Eventually Tamara took me to her back room where she had a less jumbled map (refer to image below for jumbled map). There she gave me information about the layout of the town and the larger region, pointing to areas where I could camp along the coast. After telling me that I could get the same map by checking out the Chamber of Commerce across the street, I figured it was time to take my leave. But as I walked away Tamara must’ve noticed the Germany patch on my backpack because she excitedly exclaimed “Ahh Deutschland!” before adding some German words to the mix. And it’s funny because the entire time we were talking I was wondering where her accent was from and it took her to speak German to realize she sounds exactly like Petra (you don’t know her but she’s a dear family friend and a wonderfully quirky German lady). I was shocked! I immediately replied to her in German and I can confidently say that she was more shocked than I was. Well, Tamara and I talked for another 20 minutes, switching back and forth between German and English with her sometimes correcting (okay it was frequent) my out of practice grammar. She told me about how she immigrated here from Stuttgart in 1971, why she prefers growing plants in pots rather than gardens, and how her health hasn’t been as good as it could be these days. At one point I almost teared up because it was such a beautiful moment and it made me miss my Oma and Opa and sister and mother and the rest of my family overseas. Tamara noticed and gave me a comforting embrace. She then told me to go on my way because I’m a young man and shouldn’t be wasting my afternoon talking to an old woman. But she gave me her card and told me I should return and that I should come by and have dinner with her and her husband at their home one day. I walked out of there knowing that I would be back again soon.

Jumbled Map of OR Bay Area

Well, I checked out a few more shops after that and while no interaction was as special as the one with Tamara, everyone was disgustingly nice and very open to having a friendly, engaging conversation. I know it’s only been a week, but I like it here in the South. I know I haven’t described what I will be doing for the summer at all but I figure there will be plenty of more posts for that kind of thing. I can tell you it is incredibly dope and that I am extremely excited to see what comes of the next nine weeks, both personally and professionally.

Coquille River Falls chillin’